Coming Soon: Mike Tyson's TV Show About Pigeons

Get ready to see a softer, gentler side of "Iron Mike" when his new show debuts on Animal Planet in March. We already know him as a heavyweight boxing champion, convicted rapist and occasional actor, but who knew that he's also a lifelong pigeon fancier?

His new show, 'Taking on Tyson', is a six-part documentary in which the former world heavyweight champion returns to his old Brooklyn neighborhood to train pigeons.

And not just any old airborne vermin, either, but racing pigeons, which are, according to Tyson, "the crème de la crème of the pigeon world. These are thoroughbred pigeons."

In the show we see Tyson recalling how as a child he skipped school to escape bullies and found solace and tranquility raising pigeons. His pigeon coop is on the roof of a house next to the gym where he trained for his famously bruising encounters in the ring.

When Animal Planet first announced the show last March, Tyson said he felt "a great pride acting as an official representative for all the pigeon fanciers out there."

'Taking on Tyson' was shot in New York City last spring and explores the complex world of racing pigeons, which is a little-known sport in much of the US. Although the main focus is on Tyson and a group of other pigeon fanciers as they train their birds and ready them for races, viewers will also get a glimpse into the former boxer's checkered past and his life as it now.

"This is what we do. Our lives are dedicated to pigeons, even when I have been fighting or getting locked up," Tyson told reporters at a press conference yesterday. "This is not no hobby. This is something we are going to do until the day we die."